This Different Side Of Life
by Kosich Raine
Summary: SAY WHAT! A girl who doesn't like Sasuke! Oh ho! But Kiba likes her! And why doesn't she wear shoes? Why did that guy just give her free food? And this story is not a love story?  Well of course not. THIS is a story of life. A different side of life.
1. Ch 1: Enter Poyo Hadashi

Hooray for a new story! Hopefully I'll be able to finish this one.

This chapter's kinda long, but it's the opening! I had a lot to put in :)

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.**

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Chapter 1: Enter Poyo Hadashi

The bell rang, declaring that the school day had begun. The kids were in their seats, and Iruka was writing the name "Poyo Hadashi" on the chalkboard.

Meanwhile, his students were moving around from behind their desks, trying to get a glimpse of the name, since their sensei's body was in the way of a letter or two. From the angle of some students, the _whole_ friggin' thing was blocked.

Naruto tilted his head and leaned to his left, looking for the beginning of the name. "Po-…that's all I can see from here. "Po"…That sounds like the start of a boy's name. It's gonna be another boy! This should be good."

He smiled, eyeing the prank on the door he had set up earlier. It was a rather large bowl filled with water, propped with a stick in such a way that when the door slid open, the victim of the prank would get soaked, and possibly suffer from a concussion after getting bashed on the head with the bowl.

"I wonder what they're like," Kiba asked out loud, but to himself and Akamaru. The puppy added an _Arf!_

Shino was silent. Apparently he had nothing to say.

Chouji was munching on a bag of chips, as usual, and spouted out, "It could be either a guy or a girl. But the name sounds more like food to me."

"Everything sounds like food to you, Chouji," Shikamaru dryly pointed out, his chin resting on his hands that laid on the desk.

Hinata kept her thoughts to herself. _Well…I-I don't mind if it's a boy or a g-girl. As long as they're n-nice…_

Unlike Hinata, Sakura and Ino decided to shout out _their_ thoughts.

"Well, I don't care who it is, I will still love Sasuke with all my heart, no matter what!" Sakura squealed.

"If it's a girl, I'll be more beautiful than her. If it's a guy, well that doesn't matter because my eyes are on one boy, and one boy only…Sasuke Uchiha!" Ino cried.

All the other girls joined the "I love Sasuke" party and hearts procreated from their eyes and flew around the classroom. Sasuke sat in his seat, leaning a side of his face on his hand, and stared out the window. As usual, he didn't include himself in these morning madnesses. He only went to the academy to learn, to hone his skills, so that one day, he could take revenge and-

_What the…_

From the corner of his premature Sharingan eye, he noticed movement from outside the window. Whatever it was, it was close. And it was _big_.

"Good morning, everyone!" Iruka greeted. "As you can see, I've written on the board the name of our new student!"

The sensei's 'good morning' caught the attention of the kids, but his second sentence fostered an omg-as-if-that's-not-obvious-already look. His next action, however, created the climax and excitement, especially for Naruto, who was still eyeing his ingenious prank.

Iruka swung his arm towards the door, and announced, "Everyone please welcome, Poyo Hadashi!"

Naruto's grin grew wider and wider, but then shrunk a few seconds later, when no one came through the door. The rest of the kids were unaware of the prank, but were puzzled anyways since they haven't seen this "Poyo Hadashi" come through the door yet. Iruka turned his head and saw the still closed door, (but somehow not Naruto's prank.)

"Uhh…"

_Knock, knock, knock._

It came from the window. The same window through which Sasuke was looking. Whatever passed by was gone now, but what just made that noise?

Everyone in the classroom switched their attention from the door to that window. Iruka cautiously walked over and peered outside. When he saw what was outside, his eyes had the _WTF_ look and he threw open the window.

"What are you doing outside? Why didn't you come through the door?"

Iruka's students began exchanging glances and tried to look at who their teacher was speaking with.

"What a weirdo, why would they come in through the window?" Ino scoffed.

Some people laughed, but they were promptly cut off by a small, defiant hand that shot through the window, and pointed towards the top of the classroom door. Everyone followed the pointed hand's direction, and saw the prank that was sitting, waiting for its intended victim who was just too smart.

"Heh, weirdo, _not_. The kid knew something was there, and the rest of us didn't even notice until now," Shikamaru remarked.

The class was stunned, but Naruto was devastated. His plan had failed. Badly. Iruka saw the bowl of water as well, and glared at Naruto, who hung his head in defeated shame. The man turned his focus back to the new student outside, who was sitting on a beige-colored dog with long, brown ears. Iruka recognized him, the dog that is, and gave him a nod. The dog used its nose to lift the kid up into Iruka's arms, softly barked once, then poofed away. Iruka closed the window, then set the kid down onto the classroom floor.

Iruka sheepishly smiled, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, and said, "Haha! Well, that didn't go as I expected, but now that that's settled, everyone please welcome, Poyo Hadashi!"

All eyes-yes, I mean _all_ eyes, (because this weird going-through-window-to-avoid-prank incident just happened)-were centered on a young, brown-haired girl standing at the front of the classroom.

"Ahh…hi everyone!" she smiled. It wasn't a shy smile, it wasn't a fake smile. It was a genuine, there's-a-lot-of-people-in-here-and-this-is-a-new-beginning-so-I-can-make-a-lot-of-friends-but-first-I'm-going-to-find-the-mastermind-who-set-up-that-trap-and-made-me-walk-around-the-whole-school-to-get-to-that-window smile.

As the former students looked upon their new classmate, thoughts swirled around their heads.

_Why isn't she wearing any shoes?_

_What kind of a necklace is she wearing?_

_YESSSS! She has short hair! Sasuke won't like her at all!_

_So Poyo is a girl…_

_How did she know? I set it up so perfectly, how did she know?_

_What did I see outside? It was big, so it wasn't her, but what was it? Does she have anything to do with it?_

_She looks like that one girl posing in a chip ad. _

_She's clever, I'll give her that. _

_Sh-she looks nice. She's smiling. I…I wonder if we can be friends?_

Kiba's mouth hung open.

"Woof."

He was very young at the time, but nevertheless something was goin' on inside. As for everyone else, they introduced themselves.

"Hey, I'm Chouji!"

"Yo, I'm Shikamaru."

"H-hi, I'm H-H-…Hinata!"

"I'M NARUTO!" The blond boy tried hiding his disappointment.

"Shino."

"Uh…KIBA! I'm Kiba. And-"

"I'm Ino! The most beautiful girl here, the only one for Sasuke!"

"NO WAY PIG! Oh…haha! I'm Sakura! But Sasuke is mine!"

As everyone greeted her, in their own special way, Poyo took in their faces, the sound of their voices, the feeling of the atmosphere around them. After all, it was the first time she was exposed to such contact with so many people. When Sakura and Ino introduced themselves, Poyo mentally pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow. _Who is this Sas-_

Her eyes laid on treasure. He was one of the most beautiful beings she had ever witnessed with her soft, chestnut-colored eyes. His hair was sleek, his mouth was shaped handsomely, his whole body was the definition of perfect.

Iruka looked at Poyo, not noticing the hearts procreating out of _her_ eyes, then looked around the classroom.

"Poyo, you can sit next to-"

"OHHHHHHHHHH MY GOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed, sprinting up the stairs to her targeted adoration.

She bent over, putting her hands on her knees, brown eyes shining, face to face with this beautiful creation.

"What's _your _name?" she smiled.

_ARF ARF!_

"AWWW YOU'RE SO CUTE, I COULD DIE! I _love _dogs!" She gazed up at Kiba and asked, "What's his name? I can't understand dog language that well."

"Ahh…this is Akamaru!"

"Akamaru! That's such a neat name. May I hold him?"

"Sure."

Akamaru jumped into Poyo's arms. He licked her face as she cuddled him and cooed him.

"You are so _adorable!_ Look at you! Your coat is shiny, your ears are healthy, your teeth are clean, your body is in shape-you are just _perfect_!"

Kiba mouth hung open again. He was furiously blushing, amazed at this girl's adoration for his dog. As for everyone else. The girls had a _WTF_-she-didn't-care-about-our-Sasuke? look. And the guys had a _WTF-_a-girl-that-didn't-fall-in-love-with-Sasuke-at-first-sight? look. Yes, it happened to be that Kiba and Akamaru were sitting in the seat directly behind Sasuke, so it looked like she was staring at the dark beauty, not the doggie. However, this was just proved wrong. Naruto was the first of the guys to snap out of this realization, and smirked at his rival.

"Sasuke…seems like you're not so great after all! You're losing your popularity!"

"Shut up, Naruto, it's not like you have any."

Behind them, Poyo continued hugging Akamaru, gently rocking him side to side, then gave him back to Kiba.

"Your dog is cute! Lemme show you mine!" She took a deep breath, then performed a flash of hand signs. "Summoning Jutsu!"

_POOF!_

A massive dog appeared, hanging upside down from the ceiling, his long ears flopping down, accidentally slapping Shikamaru on the head.

"Woops! Sorry, kid. _POYO_! I _told_ you I'm too _big_ for this classroom, that's why I can't come inside with you," he groaned. He had a low voice that had a slightly lazy drawl, but it had a strange potency as well.

"I know, I'm sorry Rongi…BUT LOOK! I just met Kiba here, and _he_ has a dog! PEOPLE HAVE DOGS HERE TOO, OHMYGOSHH!"

Iruka's eyes widened. _Yes, Poyo, but people your age usually can't summon yet…_

The rest of the class was astonished. They all thought something along the lines of…_She can use the Summoning Jutsu? _And _she's crazy! What does she mean by "People have dogs here, too?"_

Rongi ignored the appalled reaction from everyone, since he perfectly knew why she could use such a high-leveled jutsu at such a young age. Still hanging from the ceiling, he turned his head towards his comrade, carefully pulling his ears back so that he wouldn't accidentally slap any of the other kids.

"Yo, Iruka. Nice seeing you again, after like, what, two minutes ago? By the way, you gonna take care of my kid when I'm not here?"

Iruka, snapping out of his baffled state, stuttered, "Uhh…Y-yes, yes, of course, Rongi. I just…I…How…?"

"Simple. I taught the jutsu to the kid myself. Anyways, your kids are staring at me all weird. So I'm gonna go. I'll see ya later, Poyo! Be good!"

"I will! Bye!"

_POOF!_

Poyo looked at Kiba and asked, "Kiba, may I sit next to you?"

Kiba gazed at this…this…very _different _girl. It's not everyday that he sees someone come into class through a window. Escaping class, yes, but not coming into a class, even though it was to avoid Naruto's prank. Then, she chooses Akamaru, over the ever-so-popular Sasuke Uchiha, _the _Sasuke Uchiha. Now _that_ is definitely not ordinary. He would have to brag about that later. And after witnessing her summon a freakin' huge dog, whose name is apparently Rongi, who would have thought that Poyo Hadashi was _just _a new student? But these concerns were minor compared to his adoration for her. Well, the concern in which she chose Akamaru over Sasuke was actually a big deal, but anyways!…He had just met her a few minutes ago, and already she had stirred up something inside of him. He…liked her.

"Yeah, sure!" he said, giving her a toothy grin.

"Iruka-sensei, I'm sitting next to Kiba!"

"Ah…alright. Now that we're all here and have familiarized ourselves with one another, let's begin class! So today…blah blah blah blah…"

Although she didn't realize it at the time, sitting next to Kiba was one of the most important steps she had taken into village life. Little did she know, and little did _he _know, that their footsteps into the future would be so closely intertwined. As she learns from him and gains a greater understanding of the world around her, he catches glimpses of the world through her eyes, and sees…a _different_ side of life.

"Hey, what's that?" Poyo whispered, poking Kiba with one hand, and pointing at something with the other.

Kiba followed the imaginary line from her hand to the object that grasped her attention.

"That's a clock."

"Oh! What does it do?" she inquired further.

"It tells the time."

"Like the sun!"

"Yup! But a clock can still tell time when it's nighttime, or when it's raining."

"Oh. But you sleep during the night, don't you?"

Kiba tilted his head and pondered her point. Then he said, "Yeah, you're right. But what about when it's raining?"

Poyo laughed. "When it rains, I just go out and dance until the sun comes back again!"

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it :) If there are any typos, or suggestions to improve the writing, please PM me, I'd really appreciate it. And I'll see you at the next chapter!


	2. Ch 2: Lunches and Love

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, but Masashi Kishimoto does.**

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Chapter 2: Lunches and Love

Big, white, and fluffy clouds slowly drifted across the expanse of the great blue sky, like big white boats slowly sailing across the great blue sea.

Shikamaru wanted to go watch the clouds. Unfortunately, class was in session, so he wouldn't be able to go outside. His eyes rolled up to stare at the ceiling, while he held his face in one hand.

_What a drag…_

Across from where he was sitting, he noticed that Kiba and the new girl were whispering to each other. His mouth went into a half-grin.

_Oh…that's cute. Kiba found a girlfriend._

Now before we move on…At ten years old, what does love mean?

"I LOVE SASUKE MORE!"

"NO I DO!"

"SHUT UP PIG!"

"GO COVER UP YOUR FOREHEAD! IT'S TOO BIG!"

Poyo glanced at the girls arguing behind her, the ones who introduced themselves as Sakura and Ino.

"Why are they fighting?" she asked.

Kiba smirked, then rolled his eyes. "See that guy over there? In the blue shirt. With the black hair. His name's Sasuke. He's the reason."

"Oh…him? Oh…I just realized, I didn't let him introduce himself! Woops…I saw Akamaru and-"

"Haha! Don't worry about it, he probably doesn't care."

"Oh…"

Poyo thought to herself for a moment. _Maybe I'll go introduce myself to him later…_

"SASUKE IS MINE!"

"NO HE'S MINE!"

"HE LOVES ME MORE!"

"KEEP DREAMING!"

Poyo pursed her lips. "Is this normal?"

Kiba laughed. "You have no idea."

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Rongi sat on the hardwood floor of a room in the ANBU black ops headquarters. He lazily lifted up his foot and began scratching his ear, waiting for his previous summoner before Poyo.

_POOF!_

And he appeared.

He wore the typical ANBU uniform, and his face hid behind a white and red cat mask. Unlike most ANBU, his eyes could be seen. He had very large eyes. Almost…scary eyes.

"Yo, boss."

"Hey, Rongi. Sorry I'm late."

"No problem. I just got here two seconds before you did. Well maybe a little longer than that, but you get what I mean."

"…Right," the man said, with slight sarcasm. "How's Poyo?"

"The kid's doing great. No signs of unsettledness so far."

"…Are you sure she's okay?"

"Yup."

Then, Rongi remembered when the young girl had to climb through the window because of the prank that could have potentially hurt her.

"Yup," he repeated. "Everything's fine with her."

The ANBU soldier sighed a sigh of relief.

"Well, that's good to hear. By the way, do you happen to know any of the kids in her class?"

Rongi tilted his head and squinted his eyes, while rubbing his head with one of his long, brown ears.

"I wouldn't have been able to answer that question if she didn't _summon_ me into her classroom. She wanted to show me to one of her new friends. His name was…Kiba I think. Poyo was sitting next to him. He looked like a nice kid. The boy had a lil' pup with him too, about Pakkun's size. Then there was this other kid-"

_Kiba?…Boy?…Sitting next to him?_

"…who I accidentally smacked in the head with my ears. His hair was up in a spiky ponytail. There were some girls, one had pink hair, the other had light blonde hair, and they were fighting over some other kid. Now that I think about it, I think that that was the Uchiha boy. Sasuke, right? And there was this other kid who wore goggles on top of his head, and he had blond hair. Then there was-Yo, boss, what's up with you?"

"…My sister's sitting next to a boy?"

Rongi gave the man an exasperated look.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, I'm serious, Rongi! Have you taught her what a crush is?"

Rongi widened his eyes and shot his ears back.

"_At this age?_"

The ANBU man face-palmed.

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but the other kids are going to make fun of her if she doesn't understand…I hate to say it, but it's almost one of the basic blocks of school!"

Rongi sneezed, then shook his head. _Kids these days…_

"Well…tell her about it later, okay? I trust that you've taught her everything else to prepare her for school life? Not to mention village life…"

"Yeah, don't worry about it boss, I got it."

"Thanks, Rongi. I've gotta go now." The ANBU man looked at a clock overhead, and added, "It must be close to lunch time at school. Did you pack a lunch for her?"

The dog stared at his previous master.

"I was supposed to do that?"

The ANBU man face-palmed again.

"Never mind. I'll just drop by and give her my lunch from today."

Rongi intervened.

"W-wait. I thought you said that-"

"I know what I said. She won't know who I am." _She never has, _he sadly thought.

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The clock hit eleven thirty, (AM I'll have you know), and the lunch bell rang. Kids flew from their seats to the door, running outside for munchies and playtime.

Kiba grabbed a brown paper bag from his desk.

"See, clocks tell you what time it is for lunch, too!" he smiled, while walking side-by-side with Poyo through the hallways.

"Pft, still, who needs a clock? My tummy tells me what time it is to eat!" she grinned back.

The two laughed, and Akamaru barked.

They reached the outdoors, where small groups of kids sat down in circles, establishing their "spots." There was a bright green lawn, with full grown trees here and there. Dirt paths twisted around the lawn, leading to different areas. Kiba looked around to see if there was a spot for him and his new friend. And Akamaru, of course.

While he searched, a fight broke out in front of them.

"Forehead queen, you're gonna get fat if you keep eating like that! There's no _way_ that Sasuke would like you then!"

"Shut up, pig! At least I'm not starving myself to look like a stick!"

"I'm the most pretty girl here! Sasuke only looks at me!"

"AS IF! You and I both know that he likes me the best!"

The girls began jostling around, pulling each other's hair. The girls around them began wailing about Sasuke, and the boys cheered on the fight. Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, Kiba quickly took up Poyo's hand and ran.

"Quick! We can go over by that tree over there!"

Poyo didn't hesitate and followed him. She didn't want to get caught in between either.

They sprinted away, with Akamaru hanging onto Kiba's head, and Kiba holding onto Poyo's hand. Their clothes billowed in the wind, and their feet made soft _pat-pat-pats _as they ran on the grass. About three-quarters there, they began slowing down. From the door of the school building, the distance between them and the tree was…a bit far. As they slowed down to walking speed, Kiba realized he was still holding Poyo's hand. Some pinkness spread on his cheeks, and it wasn't from their little sprint.

"Your hand is warm," Poyo said.

Kiba turned more pink at this, then shyly replied, "Ahh…thanks."

"Do you pee on it to keep it warm?"

Now at this, Kiba's eyes bugged out, and he dropped her hand at the question.

"Just kidding!" she grinned, giggling at his reaction.

He hung his head in embarrassment, not that he _did _pee on his hand to keep it warm, but the whole thing was…unexpected, at the very least. He decided to change the subject.

"Man…those girls back there. They're crazy! Their crushing on Sasuke is _crazier._"

Poyo raised an eyebrow. 'What's does it mean to _crush_?"

"You don't know what it is?"

"Erm…"

She knew that crushing something meant to squeeze something really hard into something smaller, or into smaller pieces. But in this case, this was a completely different use of the word.

"…Nope. I don't know."

Kiba gave her a curious look. _But everyone knows what a crush is! _He decided to ignore his mental comment and tell her anyways.

"Well, it's like this."

As they made their way over to the tree, he explained to her, as best as he could, what a crush was. He finished by the time they got underneath it. Then Kiba looked over at Poyo and noticed something.

"By the way, where's your lunch?"

"My…? I was supposed to bring a lunch?"

"Yeah, we eat lunch at school."

"Oooooh…Well, uh…"

_POOF!_

Kiba jumped and Akamaru yelped. Poyo tensed up her shoulders, balled her fists, and scrunched her face while her hair was blown back.

A mysterious man walked out from the smoke, a brown bag in hand. His attire declared "badass ninja whose face cannot be seen, but you can see his bare arms to compensate."

"Hey! Looks like I came in time. Here's a lunch for you."

The man bent down to Poyo's height, and handed her a bag.

She was skeptical at first, squinting her eyes at him while pursing her lips.

"Your eyes are big and scary. You could give someone a heart attack."

The man turned his head aside and cried to himself, "Why does everyone keep talking about my eyes?"

In a slightly nicer tone than her greeting, if you could call that a greeting, she asked, "Hey mister…who might you be? And…why are you giving me free food?"

"I'm a friend. I heard you didn't have a lunch, so, I thought I'd bring you some."

He nudged the bag a little closer to the girl.

Poyo eyed the bag, then looked at the man again. His eyes were _really_ big.

"Well, okay then. Thanks, mister."

The man behind the cat mask smiled, satisfied with her reply.

As Poyo slowly reached for the bag, she changed the game plan and decided to kick him where the sun don't shine instead.

"TAKE THAT!"

"AURGH!"

Poyo booked it, and as she ran, she yelled back, "RONGI TOLD ME TO NEVER TAKE STUFF FROM STRANGERS!"

Kiba was speechless. This whole time he was unsure of what to say, think, or do. He knew the man was from ANBU, but he didn't realize how…strangely?-No, that wasn't quite the right word…How _differently_ Poyo had reacted to the man's outstretched hand.

"Uhh…"

Kiba spun on his heel and ran after Poyo. Sure, the ANBU were good guys, he knew who they were. But _man, _this guy had _scary huge_ eyes.

As the mysterious man lay on his side, holding his man area in agony, he couldn't help but mentally laugh at himself.

_Rongi, you taught her well._

* * *

He sat up in the tree, alone, away from everyone else. It was quieter here, and he liked to keep to himself whenever possible.

Sasuke ate lunch here everyday. Nothing usually happened, but today was an exception.

He saw Kiba and the new girl walk towards the tree, talking about something. He decided to listen in on them.

"It's when you like someone a lot. You get this feeling inside your chest whenever you see them, and your heart beats faster and faster. You think about them a lot, and you want to talk with them everyday. And when you're with them, you feel like you're the happiest person in the world."

Poyo widened her eyes as Kiba went more and more into his explanation.

"So this Sasuke, he must be really something if all those girls crush on him!"

Kiba stuck his lower lip out and side glanced at the air.

"Well, I don't know. He's so cold. He doesn't talk to anyone and he doesn't let anyone get near him."

"Maybe he just wants some space! It must be a lot of pressure to have so many people crushing on him!" she giggled, thinking about all of the girls from before.

"Yeah, well, he should at least show that he cares."

Sasuke watched the boy and girl down below talk about him. He already knew that the other boys didn't exactly like him, and it was obvious that all the girls liked him. Well, except for this girl, Poyo.

He was puzzled. It wasn't because he couldn't get her, although it would have helped him move closer to his goal. It was because he wanted to know how she used a summoning jutsu, to summon that huge dog from before. He wanted her to teach him how to do it. It was a common jutsu, but most ten-year-olds couldn't pull it off.

_POOF!_

There was a commotion underneath the tree. As Sasuke watched from his branch, he witnessed the power of a blow to the balls. He saw Poyo and Kiba run away, then looked down and saw the ANBU.

_How pathetic…_

He noticed the ANBU wailing something to himself.

"OHHH EVEN THE WILL OF FIRE CAN'T STOP THE PAIN!"

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This…was a very long chapter. I apologize to those of you whom I may have bored…but I tend to write long chapters :X But I hope you like the story so far! It'll progress, I promise! Review please? :D


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